Our overall goal is to develop a sleep medicine educational initiative that will provide medial students, residents and practitioners with the assessment and management skills necessary to optimally care for patients with sleep disorders.
Aim 1 : To make sleep medicine education an integral part of the medical student curriculum. Educational objectives will be defined by obtained broad faculty input via a multi-disciplinary advisory committee. Course materials will be prepared by evaluating available material and developing new instructional materials. Evaluation of sleep educational outcomes will be achieved by applying current methodology to sleep initiatives and by the establishment of a data-bank of sleep-related test items, clinical simulations and patient-care exercises.
Aim 2 : To generate an interdisciplinary educational program for physicians who are in training and in practice at our institution. The educational focus will be to provide information on obtaining a accurate sleep history, recognizing common sleep disorders and proposing appropriate management strategies. Educational interventions will include didactic conferences, patient-oriented clinic conferences, and the establishment of a sleep resource center for clinical problems. Evaluation outcomes will include resident in-service examinations, chart audits before and after interventions and self-assessment exercises.
Aim 3 : To provide a research/educational opportunity in sleep medicine for students and physicians in training in a model primary care clinic. A simple sleep survey questionnaire will be pilot tested in a model primary care clinic to determine its effect on the recognition and management of common sleep disorders. Upon completing the proposed sleep curriculum and educational interventions, students, trainees and practitioners will be able to establish a preliminary diagnosis for common sleep disorders and have a basic understanding of the most effective interventions and referral options.
| Dempsey, Jerome A; Skatrud, James B; Jacques, Anthony J et al. (2002) Anatomic determinants of sleep-disordered breathing across the spectrum of clinical and nonclinical male subjects. Chest 122:840-51 |
